Much effort has been directed to cleaning up toxic wastes in a drive to restore our natural environment. Some of such toxic waste lies at the bottom of waterways. For treatment, such sludge is generally dredged up and transported to shore, either by barge, or pumped in slurry form through a floating pipeline.
The composition of such sludge is, of course, highly variable. The amount of water which must be added to provide a slurry with appropriate pumping characteristics is difficult to determine.